Faced with a negative response from the media and pressures from several top international players and financial bodies, the Romanian authorities decided to postpone the controversial capital increase by asset reassessment and by cash, which was to be performed at aluminium maker Alro Slatina.
Were this operation concluded, the state would have lost control over Alro to a trade company, Conef Bucharest, and to its main shareholder, the US-based Marco International.
Although Conef has been advocating the necessity of a capital increase over the past few weeks, on the grounds that Alro needs cash, the representatives of the trade company during the General Shareholders Assembly yesterday voted side by side with the Privatisation Authority, the main shareholder, for postponing the capital increase.
" I am authorised to request the postponement of the first order of business in this General Shareholders Assembly (that is the capital increase by asset reassessment and granting of bonus shares, as well as by $60 million in cash)," Marian Nicoli, APAPS representative in Alro's Board of Directors, maintained.
The General Shareholders Assembly, attended by 20 people, representing 73% in the capital, was supervised by Privatisation minister Ovidiu Musetescu. Musetescu announced that a decision about Alro was to be made "by September."
The meeting was calm, as the only dispute was the one between Balli trade company and Musetescu over the pre-emption right the company has in purchasing the controlling interests in Alro.
"The object of our challenge is the pre-emption right (that is buying the controlling interests in Alro and Alprom Slatina).
We got this right from the State Ownership Fund and I would like to officially inform you that Balli will take every step necessary to prevent APAPS from disregarding the right granted to us," Balli official said during the General Shareholders Assembly.
"If you pretend to be in possession of such documents, we would kindly ask you to show them to us. We acknowledge no pre-emption right and I have seen no document to attest it so far," the Privatisation minister retorted.
"We reserve the right to do it. We have the documents and we will produce them," Balli official said.
Whereas last week 4,000 union members took to the streets to express discontent about the increase, no worker had anything to say against the representatives of the main shareholder yesterday.
At the same time, there was no argument about Alro's management earnings, although the Government was outraged to see how much the management really makes. For instance, Gheorghe Dobra, Alro's head, last year earned 2.6bn lei.
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